Record-breaking James Bond star joins Oscar-winning Anora actor in retelling of classic horror tale

Back in January 2025, Deadline reported that director Charlie Polinger was set to write and direct a film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death for A24.

Now, one year on, Léa Seydoux – who Bond fans will be familiar with as Madeleine Swann from Spectre and No Time to Die – has been confirmed to be joining the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter,

The French actor became a record-breaker in the currently dormant James Bond franchise after becoming the first love interest to play a significant role in more than one movie in the series.

Originally, it had been announced that Sydney Sweeney would be leading the film, but the Euphoria and The Housemaid star dropped out in June 2025. She was replaced by 2025 Oscar winner Mikey Madison, who picked up the Best Actress award for her performance in Sean Baker's Anora – one of the film's five Academy Awards.

Seydoux's other roles include a memorable turn as Charlotte LaPadite in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, as well as appearances in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Dune: Part Two, and The Lobster. Madison has also worked with Tarantino, having a small role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and also appeared in 2022's Scream.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, it is rumoured that Madison will be portraying twin sisters in the upcoming horror adaptation, while Seydoux's character is to be "a scheming lady-in-waiting who is conniving her way to the top."

After Madison's many major awards for Anora and Seydoux's award-winning performances in Blue is the Warmest Colour and The Beast, there's certainly a good degree of acting pedigree behind this much-anticipated horror.

While the full plot details of The Masque of the Red Death are being kept tightly under wraps for the moment, the original short story is about a horrific illness (the titular Red Death) and the disturbing lengths that people go to in order to get rid of it.

This certainly won't be the tale's first adaptation either, with the 1964 Roger Corman film of the same name, starring Vincent Price, being perhaps its most iconic re-telling.

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